Colorado’s largest MLS, REcolorado, is now offering the state’s MLSs and associations the ability to display their members’ listings on its own listing site, REcolorado.com, at no charge.
The program — dubbed “Your Listing. Your Lead.” — follows industry-developed fair display guidelines. This means listing agents are the only agents displayed next to listings, along with their contact information.
Realtor associations and MLSs that choose to participate in the program will receive monthly metrics reports that quantify the performance of their member’s listings on REcolorado.com and they will be prominently displayed as the listing source, REcolorado said.
When asked why REcolorado was offering the program, spokeswoman Deborah Shipley said in an email, “To provide more no-cost leads to brokers from across the state. Our intent is to bring more visitors to REcolorado.com so Colorado agents will get more visibility for their listings.
“Real estate is local so marketing their listings on the most popular locally-run site in Colorado is a win for brokers and consumers.”
Citing Experian Marketing Services’ statistics, Shipley said REcolorado.com was the most-visited real estate website in Colorado after Zillow. More than 1 million users visit the site each month, which is six times more visitors than any other locally-run website in Colorado, the 18,000-member MLS said.
A property detail page on REcolorado.com
REcolorado.com currently has about 7,000 active residential listings, including for-sale, for-rent and new construction properties.
So far, REcolorado has signed on four partners: the Vail Board of Realtors/Vail MLS; the Grand County Board of Realtors; the Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors; and the Realtors of Central Colorado.
These partners’ 3,000 combined listings will be added to the site in the coming weeks and expand the site’s coverage to not only the Denver metro area, but also the “highly desirable” mountain areas, the MLS said.
Some of these partners have their own public-facing listing sites and REcolorado encourages them to promote their own sites as well “because they also offer no-cost leads to brokers,” Shipley said.
“The more sites that are designed to keep the broker at the center of the transaction without having to pay for advertising, the better.”
On a flier for the program, the MLS promises “REcolorado is committed to being an ethical and reliable partner with Colorado brokers, associations, and MLSs. We will never contact your brokers, redistribute your agents’ listing data, sell your data, or charge for leads.”
[Tweet “REcolorado promises never to contact MLS partners’ brokers, sell their data or charge for leads”]
A similar program
REcolorado’s program seems to be following in the footsteps of a fellow Colorado MLS, Information and Real Estate Services. IRES, which has more than 5,000 members, joined forces with another Colorado MLS, Colorado Real Estate Network, last summer to display CREN’s listings on IRES’s website, ColoProperty.com.
The move was in part intended to sidestep popular listing portals such as Zillow and realtor.com.
Earlier this month, IRES announced partnerships with the Grand Junction Area Realtors Association (GJARA) and Gunnison Country Association of Realtors, which brought ColoProperty.com’s total inventory to over 15,000 available properties, IRES said.
Currently, REcolorado does not have a partnership in place with IRES for its “Your Listing. Your Lead.” program, though Shipley said the MLS was open to collaboration.
And if an MLS or association chooses, it can “absolutely” partner with both REcolorado.com and ColoProperty.com, Shipley said.
“We are supportive of all opportunities for Colorado brokers to gain greater visibility for their listings and get no-cost leads,” she said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note that the listing figure for REcolorado.com — 7,000 — refers to active residential listings on the site.
